Ethereal Chorus Part 3
by ChianaGRay
"Maybe you're just thrown into the moment, Chiana." Aeryn spoak softly as they came out of the pod. She looked to Chiana with worry lining the edges of her sharp eyes. "I mean, think about it. You believe that these things have been transporting you every time a ship tries to starburst. When Zhaan linked with you, you were both carried into the same place possibly for the very same reason. What makes you think this Zhaan could link you to the real one and carry her and Rygel back here?"
"Because I know how I'm supposed to get there," Chiana said as she moved passed D'argo towards a cargo bay in the leviathan they had come to. "And if Zhaan could carry me, then she could help me get there and then carry me and Rygel back."
"Are you sure they are even stuck there?" D'argo asked. "Maybe they are already on yet another Moya."
"I don't think so," Chiana muttered more quietly, pausing as she heard something shuffeling in the bay and Aeryn raised her pistol to it. "I don't realy know what to think but when I was there, I felt like that tree was alive. Maybe it was calling Moya, in her own tones or something."
"Sure," D'argo nodded slightly as he came beside her. "But calling Moya intentionaly? Why would it do that? You're suggesting this thing is sentient. How would it know which one is the right Moya?"
"Beats me," she shrugged. "For all we know we could be on the wrong side."
"What," D'argo creased his brows as he followed the sounds of the shuffeling until they stopped behind several crates and unsheathed his qualta. "Of the vortex? Are you now suggesting we starburst into that?"
"What if it's a wormhole?" Chiana asked as she gave him a side glance.
"If it were a wormhole it has completely vomited on itself," Aeryn retorted as she shifted her positon to the same area D'argo was looking. "I cannot see how anything could actualy exist here."
"So maybe the wormhole is stuck in demensions," D'argo sneered a smile. "Then it wouldn't matter which side of it we were on."
Aeryn winced her eyes, shaking her head before she looked to him. "What?"
"No," Chiana shook her head as she glanced between them. "If it was like that then the monster would be trying to destroy this to get it out of the demension it's in right?"
"Look," Aeryn sighed. "The problem isn't what it is or why but how to get the frell out of here with everyone on board. I still think my first suggestion should have been followed, that we starburst away and see if everyone just returns as easily as they dissapeared. We could always starburst back to this same location if it didn't work."
"It would seem more than one of yourself keeps trying." D'argo commented as he shifted his qualta to rifel and aimed it at the crates.
"I'm not the only one," she muttered. "Zhaan too. How would this work exactly if we couldn't be sure if any one of you were the real one? You could still be just the image of D'argo. The farther these mirrored Moyas drift apart it seems like the more solid they get but none of us or Moya are exactly the same, some of them aren't even like us at all. I seriously doubt we have to rejoin with every last one of the Moyas because they seem unable to exist when they get too far away from this - thing."
"She wouldn't have to rejoin with all of the other Moyas," D'argo stated. "Not if we aren't the ones who are stuck."
"Unless it's like quick sand in space," Chiana suggested with a small smile.
"Oh!" Aeryn gasped with exasperation as she slammed her eyes shut. "Just - stop talking to me. There is no way we can get out of this by what, pulling this frelling mass of dren into a right demension because that's what you think it is. Let's just grabb the others and get the frell out of here."
She moved ahead, stepping backwards into the cooridor, her eyes unstraying from the crates the noises had been comming from as D'argo and Chiana followed her. Chiana cut her eyes to her as she raised her pistol to her shoulder.
"Just how bad are the others on this Moya?"
Chiana flinched as the crates came crashing down and someone came leaping over them. It was herself but the Nebaries eyes were crazed, a strange look on her face as she landed crouched in front of them. She stood, leaning back from her shoulders with her legs wide apart, an arm thrown out behind her as she raised a pulse pistol with a tilt of her head and pointed it at Chiana.
"Suprise!" She laughed in a rasping voice and fired.
Chiana ducked, rolling into a tumble down the hall and jerked her head up from her hands and knees. Aeryn fired back and hit the crazed Chiana square in the chest. The Nebari became consumed by veigns of light as they raced over her like growning roots. Her form faded inside of them until the strands swirled together and then vanished.
"You shot me!" Chiana gawked as Aeryn picked her up by her upper arm and urged her down the hall.
"You'll be back," Aeryn narrowed her eyes as Chiana glanced back and fourth in grunts of protest from the hall to D'argo following behind.
"But - but if they're kinkoid why are we going to this Zhaan?"
"Next one could be worse," Aeryn stated as she let her go. "Would you like to search all these ships to find one to your liking?"
Chiana paused, bowing out her arms as she tilted her head at Aeryn, her eyes wild.
"Frell yeah! I'm not going to this Zhaan, no frelling way!"
"Suit yourself," Aeryn grunted as she continued down the hall. "I'll just shoot her first and then we can go find you a niece, safe, passive little Zhaan."
"You're going to shoot Zhaan?"
"Trust me. I owe this one."
"Oh you just want me to change my mind," Chiana smiled as she crept up to her again and tilted her head nearly into Aeryns shoulder. "Is that it?"
"I think the key words were niece and safe being associated to Zhaan." D'argo smirked. "I doubt you would find one even if she were a thousand Delvians."Aeryn opened the door into Zhaans medical quarter, peering in cautiously as a sound buzzed out of the room like an angry wasp. Everything was in the glow of a deep, off orange almost like an old photo negative. She stepped in, scanning the room slowly with her pulse pistol following her eye movement as D'argo came up beside her and then Chiana directly behind them.
"I - I don't like this room," Chiana barely whispered. "Let's get out of here."
"I had locked her in here," Aeryn spoke quietly. "I'm sure of it."
"Something's pulling at me," Chiana said more loudly as she moved, feeling as if she were trying to move through a thick molassis. "I don't like the feel of this."
Chiana backed up closer to the door, grasping it to get ready to swing it shut when the other two followed. She glanced up at something sparking in a far corner like a live wire. It was nearly as big as herself, bright and buzzing louder when its shape spread out like a spider web and then calliopied into a head sized vortex. Something like the sound of a passing jet escaped from its dark center, becomming louder and increasing until it closed in on itself and became the angry buzzing again.
"I bet that's a way to the planet," Aeryn stated as she looked to Chiana.
Chiana shook her head rigorously, clutching tightly to the door as she let a grunt escape through her nostrils.
"I'm scared."
"Close the door or you will let it escape," a voice rose up from behind a table of Zhaans herbals. A figure stood. It was Zhaan, as naked as the day she was born. This Zhaan however had eyes almost glowing in a deep, rich, crimson red.
They stared at her, gaping as she twisted her head in a gaysha fashion and began to aproach, glaring beneath her brows at them with an exotic danger to her small smile.
"Close the door," she repeated plainly as they ushered out to avoid her as she followed them out.
Chiana began to push at the door, trying to will it shut as Aeryn and D'argo leaned into it. It felt as if they were trying to push a sheet of lead before it finaly closed. When they looked up Zhaan was gone.
"Mabye finding another Zhaan isn't such a bad idea," D'argo squinched his eyes at Aeryn.
"There isn't a better one," Aeryn sighed as she turned to the hall. "She'll have gone to the tier, let's get moving."Aeryn stepped into the teir with D'argo and sighed to herself before reaching out into the hall and pulling Chiana in. She stumbled in, gaping at Zhaan who sat over looking the constilation in a silken robe, chanting quietly to herself. Chiana shook her head as she turned back around. Aeryn grasped her shoulder and turned her head to her.
"Chiana."
"I think this is a bad idea," Chiana tilted her head to one side as she looked into Aeryns eyes. "Why don't we try yours and starburst away first? We can come back right?"
"Zhaan," D'argo spoak up as he steped towards her as close as he would dare. "Can you link yourself with the real Zhaan somewhere on the planet below us?"
"You want me to link with myself?" Zhaan asked as she tilted her eyes up to him. "Possibly. For what purpose?"
"Chiana believes the link could carry her and Rygel back here to this ship."
Zhaan smiled as she let out a hum of amusement and drew her hands along the smooth floor. She cut her eyes back up at D'argo as she flexed the long fingers.
"I can do better than that Kha'Dargo. Convince her to link with me."
"We - uh," D'argo glanced back at Aeryn and Chiana. "We can't communicate with the true Zhaan."
"Of course," she smiled again with a slow bat of her dark red eyes and sat up straight. "Then I will convince her."
"This is a realy bad idea," Chiana shook her head as she lowered her chin.